Taking stock of 2016 and looking ahead to 2017

Risk markets have been put through the ringer this year. Looking back on Brexit and the US presidential election, very few expected the Dow to be north of 19,000, and with the 10-year yield closing in on 2.5%.

Facebook talks with publishers on curated content feature: report

Let’s switch gears and talk about Facebook taking on Snapchat. Facebook is reportedly working on a new feature to showcase curated content from publishers directly in the News Feed. Business Insider says the feature is called “Collections” and is similar to Snapchat’s Discover section, which features news stories, videos and other content picked by media partners.

Social media ad spending to top newspapers by 2020: report

Facebook and other social media sites will take in more advertising spending than newspapers by 2020. That’s the projection in a new report out today from ad agency Zenith. It says spending on social media advertising is growing 20% a year and will top $50 billion in 2019.